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I couldn’t sleep. I found myself tossing and turning in bed, which was only causing me more pain. I couldn’t find a comfortable position to lay, my bruises were tender to the touch. My headache hasn’t gone away yet, I wonder if that’s abnormal.

I rose from my bed, forget sleeping already. My body was growing stiff and agitated from just lying there doing absolutely nothing. I got out of bed and began to quietly make my way downstairs, the stairs creaking with every step I took. Once I finally reached the bottom, I seen Howie sprawled out on the couch and Kevin sitting up right in the chair. AJ and Nick must’ve taken the guest room. The TV was still on, showing an episode of wildlife on the Discovery channel. Do I even need to say who decided to watch that channel? I grabbed the remote off the arm of the chair Kevin was sleeping on and clicked the TV off.

When everything fell silent, I heard silent whispers coming from the kitchen. Unsure of who it was, I slowly crept my way towards the dining room, peering into the kitchen only to see AJ and Nick sitting there, eating a bowl of ice cream.

“What are you guys still doing up?” I asked them.

Both AJ and Nick turned to look at me. “Hey Rok.” AJ greeted. “Want to join us?”

I stared at them and then looked down at their bowls of ice cream, Baylee’s favorite. “Sure.”

As I sat down across from them, AJ got up to fix me a bowl of ice cream. Nick remained silent as he began to stir the frozen dessert in his bowl. He finally looked up at me, looking me over.

“How ya feeling?” he asked me.

I shrugged, “A little better.” I lied.

Nick nodded and continued to eat his ice cream. AJ returned and had placed a bowl in front of me, I looked down and seen three scoops of French vanilla ice cream. I suddenly didn’t want it anymore.

“Brian, are you still depriving yourself of sleep?” AJ questioned.

I looked up at him, “I’m not depriving myself of sleep, I just can’t get any. I try, do I at least get any credit for that?”

“I guess. But you need to get yourself some sleep man, you’re starting to look like a walking zombie. And the bruises don’t help either.”

“Spare me AJ.” I sighed. “You’re starting to sound like Johnny.”

“Johnny wasn’t telling you this because he wanted you to remain marketable looking, nor am I. I’m concerned about your health, your well-being Brian, hell we all are! You’re just not listening to us, and I can understand why but you also gotta understand where we’re coming from. While you’re looking out for your son, we’re looking out for both him and you.”

I fell and remained silent. Since when had AJ turned out to be the mature and sensible one? He was the one that interjected when an argument broke out, not Howie. He was the one trying to talk some sense, not Kevin. “You’re right.” I finally said. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” It’s just what Brian? There’s no excuse for you to be acting this way, you can’t go on and blame it on your son. “I need to pull it together… for Baylee.”

AJ smiled, “There ya go. For Baylee.”

I grabbed my spoon and scooped up my ice cream, shoving it into my mouth. As I swallowed down the frozen dessert, I cringed as I felt it’s coldness slowly make it’s way down my throat. All of a sudden I felt this unbearable pain explode in my head, brain freeze.

“I can’t eat this.” I said as I placed my spoon back down into my bowl. “Wrong thing to be eating when you have a headache.”

“Do you want me to go and grab you some aspirins?” Nick asked me.

Yes! “Nah… hopefully it’ll put me to sleep or something, gonna try and sleep this damn headache off.” I replied as I rose out of my seat. “Well, thank you guys for this… late night dessert and conversation. You guys try and get some sleep okay?”

“Are you seriously telling us this?” AJ chuckled. “You’re the one that’s not getting any sleep, not us dude!”

“Well, you know what I mean. Goodnight fellas.”